LAHORE: The new government is all set to revamp the education department with technology, creative ideas and nutrition programmes for the children.
Talking to The News, Dr Murad Raas, Minister for school education said, “I have visited eight divisions and we are collecting the data about our department. Our basic objective is to upgrade the training of teachers. Teachers serving in public sector have better salaries than private school teachers but the result of students is totally opposite. Buildings and infrastructure are not going to provide a better future for the children. Teachers’ training is the need of the hour. After the fifth standard, 72 percent of children drop out of the schools. People don’t have the opportunities and educational institutes near their residences. We are planning to start a second shift in the same schools so that students can get their education till matriculation there. We will be setting criteria for the teachers as well. They are the torchbearer of our future generation. If they are not capable of mending a child’s average future into a bright one, then they need professional training.”
During discussing the future projects, he said, “Our children are not healthy at all. We are making a comprehensive plan to add one meal for the students in school timing. The meal will contain an egg, fruits and chicken so that students can get proteins. They cannot perform well if they are not healthy. We will launch a pilot project about this nutrition programme soon.”
Answering a query related to Daanish School he said, “We are not closing Daanish Schools but we have started preparing to launch an inquiry which will be conducted by a third party. They will provide the full assessment report about this project.”
“Sports and extra-curricular activities are equally important for the students. They cannot grow if they are not physically challenged. We’ll be asking all the help from the government to elevate the standard of education and sports in the schools. Around 95 percent of our development budget of Rs39 billion is being used for salaries, 160 school buildings in Lahore are dangerous and 154 schools of Kasur don’t have drinking water. These basic facilities should be free-of-cost for students” he added.
He said, “IT is the future. We will change the curriculum and will add more professional IT courses along with a wide range of subjects to it. We will be introducing technical education at school level so the parents’ mindset can be transformed. Schools are more responsible for the future of students than higher educational institutes.”
The minister was very determined about his performance and said, “I will be taking the complaints myself. We have visited some schools to see if we can have an open court there, some of them are pretty spacious like Model Town School etc. People have high hopes from our government and we will deliver. They will notice a change after 100 days.”